The Tolent administration legal claim against an unnamed subcontractor has reached the point of engaging a fire-safety expert, with Interpath Advisory disclosing £43,200 in legal costs incurred through its instruction of law firm Clyde & Co in pursuing what the administrators describe as a “complex legal claim.”
The latest progress report from Interpath’s James Lumb and Howard Smith confirms that part of those costs covered the opinion of a fire-safety expert obtained in support of the claim. The subcontractor against whom the claim is being pursued has not been named in the report.
Creditor recoveries remain bleak despite Tolent administration legal claim progress
The contractor, which reported turnover of £198m in its final accounts and was ranked 67th in the CN100 2022 table of top contractors, collapsed in February 2023 owing around £76m. Interpath previously attributed the failure to losses on a Durham project and tightening credit conditions.
In the current period, the administrators confirm that secured creditor IGF has been paid in full. Beyond that, the picture for remaining creditors is difficult. Based on current estimates, Lumb and Smith say it is “unlikely” that employees holding ordinary preferential claims, estimated at £564,459, will receive a dividend. For HMRC, with secondary preferential claims estimated at £2.7m, any dividend is described as “highly unlikely.” Unsecured creditors fall further still, with recovery prospects similarly characterised as highly unlikely.
The administrators are continuing to investigate whether claims could be brought against third parties to improve creditor recoveries. No action arising from those investigations is currently in progress, the report states.
Contract debts and retentions may extend administration beyond 2027
Beyond the legal claim, the administration is wrestling with a separate and drawn-out challenge: realising contract debts and retentions from Tolent’s former construction contracts. Lumb and Smith describe these as including “long-term contract debts where payment was made on completion of construction milestones and retentions for construction clients.” The complexity surrounding those contracts, they add, means “this process may take several years to conclude.”
That complexity has already prompted a warning that the administration could extend beyond 12 February 2027, a timeline that underlines just how protracted the wind-down of a contractor of Tolent’s scale can become, particularly where milestone-based payment structures and retentions remain unresolved long after practical completion of the underlying projects.
To assist with the recovery of those receivables, the administrators are working with quantity surveying firm Quantik Engage. In the latest six-month reporting period, Quantik was paid £26,313. Since the administration began in February 2023, total debt-collection agent costs across the estate have reached £291,781.
The engagement of both a fire-safety expert through Clyde & Co and a quantity surveying firm for retention and contract-debt recovery reflects the multi-disciplinary complexity that follows the collapse of a mid-to-large regional contractor. Fire-safety liability issues have become an increasingly live area of dispute across the construction sector since the introduction of the Building Safety Act, adding a technical dimension to insolvency recovery work that goes well beyond straightforward debt collection.
Construction News contacted Interpath Advisory for comment. The administration continues, with the next reporting milestone and any progress on the subcontractor claim likely to determine whether the 12 February 2027 longstop can be maintained or whether a further extension will be sought.
